The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced that SpaceX's Crew-5 mission has successfully reached its intended destination, the International Space Station (ISS).
After some day, the mission was finally launched on October 5 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Dragon capsule, which has been named Endurance, carried four astronauts atop SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
The Crew-5 mission is meant to last five months.
NASA, SpaceX's Crew-5 Mission Arrives at the ISS
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 from left to right, top to bottom :NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina.
According to a report by Space.com, Endurance reached the space station's Harmony module at 5:01 p.m. EDT. It took 10 minutes before the docking operation was successfully completed. However, it was not until 6:45 p.m. EDT that the hatches were opened.
Just a few minutes shy of 7 p.m. EDT, the four astroanuts inside Endurance floated into the ISS. These four astronauts are NASA's Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, Japan's Koichi Wakata, and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina.
Space.com's report notes that it is Mann, Cassada, and Kikina's first time in space, while it is already Wakata's fifth time. Mann makes history as the first Native American woman in space. On the other hand, Kikina has become the first cosmonaut to be a passenger of SpaceX's Dragon capsule.
Related Article: Historic SpaceX Crew-5 Mission Lifts Off for ISS with Exemplary, Diverse Astronauts
The Dragon Endurance Capsule
If you have been paying close attention to SpaceX's crewed missions to the ISS, then the Endurance capsule will be familiar to you. This is because it is the same Dragon capsule that carried the astronauts of the Crew-3 mission to and from the ISS.
The Crew-3 mission, which launched in November 2021, NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, and Thomas Marshburn, and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer.
The Endurance is one of the four Dragon capsules that SpaceX has. Space.com notes that these capsules are refurbished and retested before each flight.
What Crew-5's Arrival Means for the Crew-4 Mission
The arrival of the Crew-5 mission signals the impending departure of the Crew-4 mission, according to Space.com.
The report cites Sarah Walker, director for Dragon mission management at SpaceX, who said that the departure of the Crew-4 mission will happen approximately in a week's time. This, however, will depend on the weather.
The Crew-4 mission launched on April 27, which means its astronauts have been living in the ISS for around six months now. According to the announcement made by NASA, the four astronauts of the mission will answer questions from the media pertaining to their life on the ISS on October 11.
The four Crew-4 mission astronauts are NASA's Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins, and Kjell Lindgren, as well as Samantha Cristoforetti from the ESA.
